Speak like a Surfer

Written by: Rhian Hughes - Reading time: 2 minutes

Location: Byron Bay, and what is Byron Bay known for? SURFING!

Having long, sun-bleached hair, a surfboard, and usually a gorgeous, muscled, naked torso (yup this has been written by a female), is not enough to become a true surf dude / dudette! The secret to infiltrate the mysterious world of surfers is that you need to be able to speak the sacred language of the waves!

How? Well lucky for you guys, I did some research and I will give away some commonly used sentences and words, so when you are in Byron Bay you can impress all the surf dudes and dudettes!

What you need to know first… How to separate the surfers from the wannabes… A ‘hodad’ is someone who never goes into the water but dresses as if he does go into the water, and if there is one thing a surfer finds more annoying than a ‘hodad’ is a ‘brodad’, who is like a ‘hodad’ but also calls everyone his ‘bro’, even people in his family.

Here’s a sentence you can use to break the ice with your fellow surf dudes:

Surfspeak:

“Howzit, brah? The surf was epic today, fully macking double overhead corduroy to the horizon. Now it’s all buggery. Think I’ll jet to the food hut and grab a burrito and some sweet nectar. Latronic, dude.”

Translation:

“The surf was great! Now, it’s not. Let’s eat. Goodbye.”

But of course even keywords can help you out;

Howzit, brah? – How is it going? (male)

Howzit, sistah? – How is it going? (female)

Macking – Huge waves that have the force of a Mack truck

Double overhead – A wave twice as high as the surfer

Buggery – Something annoying

Latronic – Later man

So get your butts over here to Byron Bay to check out the massive waves, impress all the ‘surfies’ and of course come and stay at the Arts Factory Lodge, where all the cool people stay.

Oh and one last tip: get your ass out of the water as soon as possible when someone tells you: “Beware the sharkies”, figured that is good to know;)